Cookbooks To Savor

Nigella Lawson: FeastWhat cooking, especially for family and loved-ones is all about.

Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee: Eating KoreanI would place this cookbook in my top 10 of all time. The recipes are delicious and each section is packed with the best of Korean home cooking. The stories are wonderful, too. Highly recommend.

Irma S. Rombauer: The Joy of Cooking (not the "All New", the old school one) I don't so much like this for main dish and salad recipes as for baked goods, sauces, and jams. I have my mother's copy, and when I was about 12, my favorite thing to do was to make tea sandwiches from this cookbook. Every weekend I'd make a couple of different kinds until I worked my way through all the spreads and fillings. A good basic cookbook.

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For a food blogger that's almost as bad as running out of salt and pepper. I mean why bother cooking if it can't be photographed? That's partly why my kids had Happy Meals for dinner.

I have no idea where my camera is. As a result, I couldn't take pictures of our Easter dinner preparations and finished products.

There is no photo of the garlic-rosemary-mustard-crusted pork tenderloin. No photo of the apricot-cognac-glazed ham. No photos of the gratin dauphinois. No photos of the roasted carrots and parsnips with fresh herbs. No photos of the lovely asparagus bread pudding. No photos of the pink layer cake dusted with lightly-toasted coconut.

Maybe it will stay lost and I can finally justify an SLR. It's all part of my master plan slowly coming together...

Barring the initial stages of introducing solid foods, my kids have always eaten what we've eaten. At first their portions contained less salt, but never less herbs or spice (unless we were eating something really pepper-y). I never understood why people would feed their children bland meals. (Do you like chicken with nothing on it?) Or worse, make something tasteless while the adults eat something yummy. I want my children to have a developed palate and experience lots of flavors, so after they were 7 months old, I stopped cooking them "baby food."

I grew up eating prosciutto, crostini di fegato, and bottarga; chawan mushi, sushi, and sashimi; kimchi, cool noodles and kalbi; peking duck, dim sum, and thousand year old eggs, and I want my children to do the same. My mom made almost everything from scratch from pasta sauce to Korean mung mean pancakes, and, a barring the occassional foray into boxed mac and cheese- and Morningstar Farm-ville (I'm no martyr, trust me), I strive to do the same. I strongly believe that cooking good, fresh food (it doesn't have to be complicated at all) is the way to teach children to appreciate and enjoy food.

I'm sharing this in case you are worried about what your children can eat. Of course, use your own best judgment, but my own kids have never had a problem eating adult food and my pediatrician actually encourages it. My mother-in-law has a peanut allergy, but around their first birthdays, they both tasted peanut butter sandwiches under careful scrutiny (and with 911 at the ready). They're fine. Reckless? Maybe, but how else are you going to find out? And waiting until age three for nuts? That's just crazy to me. (I do understand the medical reasons behind it, but still, crazy.)

I'm not quite sure how picky eaters are created (or if they are born that way), but I have my own ideas. In general, though, I think if kids are exposed to lots of different foods in an environment where they see their parents cooking and enjoying lots of different foods, that's half the battle. Not forcing kids to eat or playing other "food games" is also important. So is involving your child in meal preparation in age-appropriate ways.

Flip through cook books and cooking magazines with your children. Bunny loves doing that. She points to all the things she likes and we talk about what makes them so good. If you are lucky enough to have a garden that you eat from, I think that helps. (We have to settle for going to farmer's markets where the girls can taste everything.) Then again, kids really do have minds of their own, so who knows.

We don't have hard-and-fast rules about food in our house, but I do have guidelines I feel are important. We sit at the table and eat (no walking around with food). I serve lots of vegetables and fruits. We do try to
limit sweets, but some juice is fine. We don't usually eat dessert, but when we do it's often fruit. They don't ever have to clear
their plates, but they do have to taste new things (licking doesn't count). If they don't like what's for dinner and they are hungry they can have yogurt or an apple, but that option is rarely excersized. (I can think of one time Bunny went that route.) Of the combination of things I serve for dinner, they can usually find something they like to eat.

Both kids started out eating everything and then Bunny, my four-year-old, developed her own ideas about what she liked and how she liked them. She doesn't really flat-out refuse much of anything (cooked pineapple, bean sprouts, cooked spinach, and raw fish come to mind), rather, she's particular about how she wants it served: pasta without "too much tomato sauce," for example.

Wallie, my two-year-old (tomorrow!), still eats mostly everything, but we expect some pickiness to be rearing its head soon.

Until then, we continue to put what were eating in front of them (wild salmon, rice, broccoli, salad):

And they continue to gobble it up (Wallie asked for three helpings of salad and seconds of salmon, Bunny asked for more rice. Dessert is frozen grapes):

Why do I cook the way I do? It's partly for me and partly for my children. The fact that they will eat it? Why yes, I do feel lucky! And proud!

I've been going through my photos and have been running across all kinds of food porn: things I've made and taken pictures of but haven't had a chance to blog. I'm sure you can relate.

One of my "go-to" dinner party menus is to roast up a boneless leg of lamb and serve it will all kinds of Mediterranean inspired accompaniments: flat bread, olives, charred eggplant, lentils with herby yogurt...

Below is a triumverate of side dishes that I recently served along side a roast lamb dinner. In the back are warmed black and green olives tossed with Herbes de Provence, In the foreground (left) is creamy and not-so-tangy Israeli sheep's milk feta crumbled into large chunks and topped with a chiffonade of mint, finely chopped parsley, freshly ground black pepper, and a thin drizzle of lemon-infused olive oil. To the right is homemade hummus with a dusting of sumac and an extra swirl of fruity, extra-virgin olive oil.

It is hard to cook when you have kids underfoot. No doubt about that. Which is why I try to get the bulk of my prep and cooking done when the girls are napping or otherwise occupied. I also take advantage of foods that cook themselves with minimal intervention, like rice and pasta. Once you have the rice or pasta going, you have plenty of time to whip the rest of the meal into shape.

If you think about it, rice takes about 20 minutes to cook (brown rice, about 45 minutes). During that time you can easily steam some fish or stir-fry some veggies. Pasta water takes about 10 or 15 minutes to come to a boil, and then it's a further 8-10 minutes to cook (dried) pasta. You can make a luscious pasta sauce in less than that amount of time and grate your cheese, too. (I will provide recipes for all of this.)

Another time saver for me is planning my meals in advance. I usually plan out what I am going to cook on the weekend and then grocery shop for the main ingredients. I like to buy fresh veggies daily when possible, so when I do the big shopping, I am mainly buying the protein or grain components of the meal. Knowing what I am going to cook is a huge time saver.

The weekend, when you might have help around, is the time to do things like:

wash and spin dry all your lettuce, wrap gently in paper towels, and place them in plastic bags

make a big batch of salad dressing

cook a sauce, stew, or hearty spaghetti sauce to eat one night, and freeze half for another

throw a cut up chicken in a bag with some lemon zest and juice, garlic, and olive oil and toss it in the freezer to use later in the week

roast a chicken or pork loin to use throughout the week

boil up some hard boiled eggs and use them for breakfast, snacks, sandwiches, and salads

Typical meal preparation for me during the week day (depending on what I am cooking) looks something like this:

prep salad and vegetable while children are napping (Trim asparagus, string the beans, or snap sugar peas, etc. Place lettuce and other ingredients in salad bowl and refrigerate until dinner.)

prep main dish (marinate meats or cut up a chicken etc.) or make the pasta sauce

turn on rice pot (mine—a Zojirushi—will keep rice at the perfect temperature for hours, even days.)

fill pasta pot with water and let it hang out on stove until it's ready to be turned on

empty dishwasher and wash up dishes so clean-up after dinner is easier

Again, I have been seriously cooking meals for my family since I was 14, and different things for myself even before that. I have had a lot of practice so I can whip out my prep in about 15 minutes and then have the rest of the naptime for other things. If you are out of practice or if your kids don't nap then I understand that this technique might not work for you. In this case I would say, practice cooking something from scratch everyday and it will get easier. Try to find times to prep your meals when your children are occupied. It might take all day to get dinner prepped and ready, but that, too, will get easier once you find your groove.

Cooking Gear To Spice Things Up

All-Clad cookwareI use the stainless line. I love it because you can put it in the dishwasher. If you like to cook it is sooo worth it to have quality pots and pans. I recommend buying a set on sale and then filling in extras as you need them. (Watch for sales and specials.)

Cast Iron SkilletPlease get rid of all your teflon-coated non-stick plans and get a cast iron skillet. I use mine for searing meat, poultry, and fish and then finishing off in the oven. In fact, get two cast iron skillets—one large enough to hold two ribeyes and a smaller, fried-egg-sized one for making...well...eggs.

Food ProcessorQuickly slice/shred veggies and cheese, make hummus or other spreads in a snap, and make pie crust without making a mess.

Global KnivesI am partial to the 18 incher. Yep, I like big knives and I cannot lie. If you like to cook (or even if you don't) you deserve to have good knives. At least one.

Instant Hot Water DispenserIf you can't afford to have one built-in, this is a great alternative. It's nice to have boiling water at the push of a button to make tea, instant miso soup, or morning oatmeal for the kidlets.

Microplane Grater/ZesterUse this to grate citrus zest, nutmeg, and cheese. You could get a coarser one, but you don't need to. I have one and I use it for everything.

SilpatSilpat is a silicone mat used for baking. They come in various sizes. Items will not stick to it. It is a must for any home baker.

Stick or Immersion BlenderIt doesn't have to be fancy, but try and get the highest HP you can afford. I use my stick blender (+ attachments) for making salad dressing (weekly), pureeing soups, making babyfood, and whipping cream.